Back in entries number 224 to 227 I fabricated the bracket for the trunk release inside the car, as well as the linkage going into the trunk lock from the inside.

Today I finally completed this after nearly two years. The rear end of the cable has a convenient little mounting "ear" on it where you can screw it down, so no hold down gadget needed to be fabricated.

The first pic shows the cable mounted in the trunk lid with the end hooked into the lock linkage.

The second pic shows a little plate I put over the lock linkage to prevent it from coming out.

So finally the trunk can now be locked and then easily opened from inside the car. I might just add a spring sometime to help pop it open a bit more positively.

These two pics show the right hand front and rear sill plates installed temporarily. They are made from 1mm stainless steel so they will each be polished before final fitment. The plates sitting behind them will be painted blue to give accent to the cut-outs. I drilled and tapped the sills to M4 and will use polished stainless steel button head Allen bolts to screw them down with.

I've done a fair bit of work since my last post but nothing really worth taking pictures of. I've done about 98% of the wiring, which was a mission in itself to get it neat. I also laid the carpets, installed the hooter and a few other small things.

This morning I started the door sill plates and got the right front and rear temporarily installed.

The two photos shown here is of the left rear sill plate. Due to the curves towards the back the profiling shop couldn't bend the outer lip for me so I had to do it myself. The fronts are straight so I had them machine bend it for me. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of my two wooden templates I made. I then clamped the unbent piece between the two wooden templates and proceeded to slowly hammer the edge over to form the lip seen in the second picture. It is important to do it slowly and not try doing it in one go.

At last my custom steering wheel is nearly done. This morning I started making a jig in which I could bend a piece of tubing into a ring for the steering wheel. The tubing is about 26mm diameter and has a wall thickness of 2.5mm. All it now needs is for the ring to covered in leather.

The first pic shows the jig as it ended up at the end of the process. I first marked out the circle which is the inside diameter of the ring. Then I welded 16 small pieces of flat-bar 3mm inside the circle. Then I took 3mm flat-bar and welded that on the outside of the uprights to form the inner ring of the jig. I then welded a piece of scrap tubing cut-off as a 'catch' for the tubing. I placed the tubing between that and the inner ring and started bending. Not very easy without heat! The pieces of angle iron you see was only welded after I bent the whole ring. Due to bending it cold it wants to spring back a bit and does keep the final form. Here I clamped the tubing to the inner ring bit by bit and one by one I welded the pieces of angle iron the keep the tubing in form. I had to remove the tubing from this a few times before doing the last two so that I could trim the ends to the point where the just cleared each other.

The second and third shows the steering wheel with the ring welded on. I made the ring slightly smaller than the diamter of the spokes and cut three small recesses into the back side of the tubing in which the ends of the spokes could sit before I welded it. Now, I'll take it in and have it covered, most probably with black leather.

It's been nearly a year since I last posted something in this journal. Yes, the car isn't finished yet but I'm now trying to get it done by the end of this year. There were a few months of not doing anything on the car but the last while I've been doing the wiring and that's now about 95% complete. Nothing much to take photos of.

I must've bought this 4-dr central locking kit about 2 years ago and it's been sitting in my cupbaord all along. I finally got to the point where I could install it. In the end it was a pretty easy installation.

The first pic shows the right front unit mounted just aft of the upper door hinge. As you can see the door skin has a nice recess there for it. For the front door locks this is the best angle to pull at.

The second pic shows the whole front setup. The linkage towards the left is what comes with the kit and also comes with the connectors to allow for connection to either an existing linkage or extra linkage. Due to the length there's a bit of flex in it when it unlocks (pushing action) so I used a nylon P-clip for the front doors to eliminate that flex. The flex also cause it to bang loudly against the door skin.

The rear was even simpler as can be seen it the third pic. The bell-crank you see is what the stock manual locking pin connects to. I drilled a large hole below it for the linkage from the locking unit. The locking unit sits inside the rear doors towards the bottom directly below the bell-crank.

Like with most modern cars I've also made provision for a lock / unlock button on the console.